Watercolour

Watercolour tattooing imitates paint on paper — soft colour washes, splashes, bleeds and edges that fade out rather than stop. Done well it looks like a painting that happens to be on skin.

It carries one honest caveat, and we would rather say it up front: pure watercolour with no structure underneath will soften more than most styles as it ages. We build ours over a subtle anchoring structure, so the piece keeps its shape years later while still reading as loose and painterly.

Florals, birds, abstract splashes and colour bursts behind a black-line subject all work beautifully in this style.